The WA Liberal Party is planning to mount a High Court challenge to try to force the Federal Government to give the state billions of extra dollars in GST revenue each year.
The party’s state leader, Mike Nahan, said he had legal advice that he could mount the challenge under section 99.51 of the constitution.
He said that section of the constitution banned the Federal Government from giving preference to one state over another.
WA currently receives 34.4 cents for every dollar of GST raised in the state — leaving it with a massive shortfall in revenue.
Dr Nahan said he had been considering launching the court challenge for some time.
“We have legal advice and strongly believe that the Grants Commission process is discriminatory in four states, specifically [that it] discriminates against Western Australia and therefore violates certain sections of the constitution,” he said.
“The GST has been a long-running issue.
“It needs a long-term resolution rather than the one proposed by [Federal Labor Leader] Bill Shorten of flicking more money to WA on a temporary, one-off basis.
“What we are after is an arrangement whereby we reform the allocation of GST across the states.”
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